Searching Out the Matter

Dear sister warriors in Christ,
This morning during my devotions the Lord spoke to me in a specific and special way about something I had been praying about last night, and I felt that He also prompted me to share this battle plan with you all!

In (Proverbs 25:2) we read, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”

In my Student’s Dictionary, “glory” is defined as “praise given to (S)omeone who has accomplished something extraordinary”. So it is to God’s glory for Him to “conceal a thing”; or according to (Romans 11:33,34-36) and (Isaiah 55:8-9), our God’s wisdom and knowledge, His judgments and His ways, His mind—they are all past our human, earthly and mortal understanding! They are too deep, too rich, for us to be able to swallow or comprehend! Indeed, even though we may study all of our lives on simply one of His many attributes (such as of His love or grace), indeed, when we get right down to it, in reality, we have only begun to truly scratch the surface in understanding all that He is!! His thoughts and ways are higher than ours! Yet, according to verse 2 of Proverbs 25, this is for His glory!!! BUT! The verse does not end there! J Yes, it is to the glory of our Savior that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts; but it the “…honour of kings is to search out a matter.” Now, I realize that it is speaking of kings or rulers specifically in this verse, but let us apply this to our lives as Daughters of the King, who are also enlisted in His Service! In (Job 29:16b) Job indicates, “… the cause which I knew not I searched out.” When there was a question or a doubt or perhaps a little confusion about something or concerning a certain topic in Job’s life, he made it his mission to “search that matter out”, or to learn all he could about this, and what God had to say about it, so as to clear away his confusion, doubts, and questions about it. it is like my little sister who is (at least last I knew lol) planning on starting school for this year today. She isn’t going to be able on her first day of school to take her Algebra 1 test right away—in order for her to understand it and to clear away all confusion and questions she may have so that in the future she can act with firm resolve and confidence, she must first learn the material! She must apply herself and study all she can about equations, exponents, graphs, algebraic formulas, positive and negative numbers, factoring, fractions, and ratios… before she can put them to work and be able to solve them!

And so it is with us in our Christian walk and the daily battles with the enemy that arise!! Sure, the knowledge of our Lord is deep… yet it is an honor for us to search out the things that we may be unsure of! It is a thing “to {be held} in high respect” (a Student’s Dictionary) for us to daily dig into the Love Letter, the Battle Plans, that our Lord has written for us, to learn more about Him, and to discover His thoughts, wisdom, commands, and statements in regard to specific concerns, doubts, and questions we may have! God wants us to delve into His Word when we are confused about something, and to see what He says about it, and to base our convictions and standards according to His very own!!

God used this specific Passage to speak to me this morning because lately there have been a few topics broached or that I’ve read about or been dealing with, that quite frankly, I don’t know where I stand on them. I’ve even thought several times during the last week, “You know, I really ought to study that out in the Bible and see what God says about it…” I realize that I should do this, instead of just floundering around and having no idea where I stand... “…For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed…A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.(James 1:6b & 8) (Also see Romans 14:22-23). Last night I was feeling very unsettled concerning a couple of these subjects so I talked to God about them, and then this morning, low and behold, He gave me these verses. It was as though He was telling me that, sure, I didn’t know where I stood Biblically on these subjects, but He wanted me to search His Word to find out where He wanted/wants me to! I intend to search either all or most of the places in the Bible where the “causes I know not” are mentioned, and study them out, in an effort to seek the mind of Christ concerning them and where He would have me stand.

What about YOU, dear sister in Christ?? ©©©© Are there any “causes that YOU know not”? Are there any doubts, concerns, questions in your mind concerning a certain topic, worldview, or doctrine? Have you been struggling with knowing where you stand on something lately? Maybe someone has recently asked your opinion on something and you realized that you didn’t have one! J If the answer is yes, I sincerely encourage you to take to heart the message of Proverbs 25:2 and to “search out that matter”!!! Study God’s Word concerning the topic, worldview, or doctrine in question and find out for yourself what God has to say about it! This will enable you to, with joy, and determined confidence in your obedience to Christ, form Godly standards, opinions, and act on them without doubt! Remember, it is an honor to search out the Scriptures! Also, in doing this, we gain experience and much needed skill in using our offensive weapon against the enemy—the SWORD of the SPIRIT—the WORD of GOD!! (Ephesians 6:17). The better you know your weapon, and how it works, the better you can fight with it!

Remember…

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”  (Proverbs 25:2)

Will you join me, dear sisters?